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Shortage of GP's continues in Australia's bush

MARK COLVIN: The shortage of doctors and GPs in regional and rural Australia is still at desperate levels despite Federal Government efforts to address the problem.

The Australian Medical Association says that as a result the life expectancy rates for people in remote areas is seven years lower than for those who live in towns and cities.

One town that's bucked this nationwide trend is the small town of Wudinna on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, which has had its own GP for 18 months.

But the Australian Medical Students' Association is warning that unless the Federal Government provides more training for graduate doctors the shortage of country GPs will continue.

Nance Haxton reports from South Australia's west.

NANCE HAXTON: So you're building a new medical centre then obviously?

TIM SCHOLZ: This is the new medical centre. It replaces the doctor's surgery.

NANCE HAXTON: Wudinna Council chairman Tim Scholz proudly shows off the construction site that is soon to become the town's new medical centre.

TIM SCHOLZ: It's eco-friendly building, styrene and concrete and it'll be rendered. In fact it's jokingly referred to as the big Esky.

NANCE HAXTON: The new centre is one of the spinoff benefits that's come from having fulltime GP Dr Scott Lewis in the town when for years before they could only attract short-term locums.

While the town has only 600 people it services a far wider reach of farming communities with some people gladly driving 100 kilometres or more to see Dr Lewis.

Tim Scholz says having a fulltime doctor has reinvigorated the town.

TIM SCHOLZ: The community is much more settled and the range of services obviously that's being offered, we're looking at new services all the time. It's only been the last month or so that we've been able to add chemotherapy services here which is pretty important if you need chemotherapy services.

NANCE HAXTON: Rather than having to go to the city.

TIM SCHOLZ: Having to go to the city, you know, 1200 kilometres return trip so really difficult to handle.

(Sound of plane engine)

NANCE HAXTON: When you're a GP in remote Australia flying is the only way to overcome the big distances involved. Dr Scott Lewis has a pilot's license and his own plane and says he wouldn't do it any other way.

SCOTT LEWIS: The plane is useful. It certainly takes care of the tyranny of distance.

NANCE HAXTON: He says it wasn't the pay packet that was crucial in attracting him to Wuddina after three years of negotiations with the council. His wife Karen works two days a week as a nurse at the local hospital and looks after their 18-month-old son Ethan.

The town's willingness to give him regular time off and the flexibility to fly to nearby towns to practice anaesthetics was crucial in his decision making.

SCOTT LEWIS: You can work yourself into the ground very, very easily.

NANCE HAXTON: Would that be something that you would recommend to other towns, trying to bring in their own GP, who perhaps had been without a GP for a long time like Wuddina was?

SCOTT LEWIS: Oh absolutely. You'd have to provide some sort of incentive from a lifestyle point of view. It's not just enough to say, listen we'll give you a bag full of money if you come here. You really need to provide them with a good lifestyle reason to come and work in these small towns.

NANCE HAXTON: While urban Australians have 97 fulltime GPs for every 100,000 people in outer regional areas that falls to 74 fulltime GPs and in remote areas to 47.

The Australian Medical Association is concerned at the low rate of doctors taking up country practice, saying that lack of primary health care results in a higher death rate for country people. The AMA estimates there are 4,400 more deaths a year in rural and remote areas.

In efforts to combat this the Federal Government has increased the number of places for medical students in universities around Australia. But the Australian Medical Students' Association president Tiffany Fulde says the situation won't improve until the Federal Government provides more post-graduate training for medical students.

TIFFANY FULDE: We've had a massive doubling of the number of students coming through medical schools in the last five years and that's a huge rapid increase and there hasn't been the resource increase to cope with that.

And what we're seeing is we've got a lot more medical students but not enough training positions after you finish medical school, which basically means we have people being churned out of medical school but nowhere to train them further.

It makes no sense to invest in the training of these students and then not actually get what you want in the end, which is more doctors.